


Old Bonds

by kradarua



Category: Supernatural
Genre: M/M, Pining, Unrequited Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-10
Updated: 2015-10-10
Packaged: 2018-04-25 18:39:00
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 570
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4971973
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kradarua/pseuds/kradarua
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Castiel will always love his righteous man.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Old Bonds

It was done.

Heaven had been restored to a well-oiled machine. Crowley had led his demons back to Hell, for the time being. Purgatory was closed, and the Darkness had been tamed. There was peace, if only for a moment.

Castiel should be happy, he supposed.

The Darkness couldn’t be vanquished; it was too old, too chaotic, too unknown to be able to be well and truly defeated. Dean had reclaimed the Mark of Cain, and sealed most of the Darkness with it once more, despite Sam’s protests.

Amara had remained.

She and Dean were bound, she’d said, and so they were. Amara calmed Dean’s anger and bloodlust, quelled his violent thoughts and helped him learn to handle the burden that came with their matching marks.

Castiel watched them now, but did not appear before them. From a distance, he saw Amara’s gentle fingertips brush the back of Dean’s hand, saw Dean’s hand turn to cup hers. She spoke to him and he turned to face her— turning his head first, then his shoulders, hips and feet last; even this insignificant movement Castiel could recite in his mind’s eye—and Dean brought his palm to her cheek and bent close, pressing their foreheads together.

_Cain and his Colette._

A private moment.

With a rush of air and a soft rustling of hidden wings, Gabriel materialized next to him. “Castiel! Heaven is celebrating—well, as much as Heaven _can_ anyway—and you’re down here! What are you doing?” Gabriel regarded Castiel, cheerfully popping a sucker into his mouth.

“Just watching.”

Gabriel looked over to Dean and Amara, then back to Castiel’s sullen expression, and heaved a solemn sigh.

“Castiel, listen…the bond you have with Dean is real, but if you ask me? You can do better than…” He paused to gesture vaguely in Dean’s direction, “… _that_. You deserve better.”

Castiel glanced at Gabriel, one corner of his mouth quirking up in a humorless half-smile.

“Thank you brother, but I think the profound bond Dean and I shared has been eclipsed.” Castiel directed his attention to Dean’s form a final time, and then turned to leave.

“Besides,” he added, pausing to meet Gabriel’s eyes, “I pulled him from Hell. I fought with him, fought _for_ him. I don’t want better.” And with a gust of wind Castiel was gone.

—

For the rest of eternity, Castiel wept and ached for his righteous man. He would give up his wings, his grace, his angel blade, anything at all to be with Dean again, but the profound bond was no more.

When Dean grew angry because of the Mark, Castiel would remember how he held Dean in hell and when he was a demon, and how he had once held Dean to calm him from the Mark’s rage. He wished with all he had to be able to do that now. One night he became so desperate that while Dean was sleeping, Castiel carefully laid a shaking hand over Dean’s left shoulder, where his handprint had once marked Dean as his. It made everything worse, and Castiel never repeated the action.

He never appeared to Dean again, but he lingered and watched him on occasion. On especially stormy nights Dean could have sworn that the wind sounded like howls of despair.

Eternity dragged on, and neither time nor the soft murmurs of his brothers and sisters could console the Angel of Tears and Solitude.

**Author's Note:**

> If I have to be upset about the potential impending Dean x Darkness nonsense, I'm dragging everyone to hell with me.


End file.
